My upgrade thoughts ... input would be helpful (1 Viewer)

[brentl]

Currently

2003 Civic Lx coupe(my baby)
-Sony 5050x ES cd player, changer controller, 4volt preouts ..... NO upgrade until all others are done
-Sony XEC-1000 crossover. I doubt that this has been eclipsed without spending a good deal of money(no Coustic crap) so it stays.

Everything else goes
2 Sony xm4520s(I know, gave wrong #s before) one may be used for rear fill, but the head unit should put out enough for fill.
Stock front mids and tweets come out.

Sinced I leased the car EVERYTHING must go back to stock without a fuss. As it sits now I can take out my system, just installed(YAY!), and NOBODY will know it was ever there ...PERFECT!

-REar stock speakers STAY only because rear fill isn't really needed in a small car like this and the work to remove them is pretty intensive in this car.

Subwoofer goes, It's a 12 year old Pioneer in a homemade 2Cuft sealed enclosure custom made(by me) to fill a 1985 Civic hatch.

I would like to install a DVD system in this. I know that Sony sells a Unilink Aux in so I can hook up a DVD player and screen.
I'd LIKE to put a screen in the passenger vanity mirror, so it CAN't be over 40MM thick. I'm looking at this
because it's nice and cheap.

The DVD and screen will get minimal use when the car is sitting around.

Has anybody heard of problem with the Malata
DVD player?? I wonder weather it would last in a car??

Would I be better to do something like this
and just save the headaches??

I don't need the highest quality in a portable, but opinions would be nice.

Now onto front speakers

As far as I've been told I can easily fit 6 1/2" in the door, and 1" in the pillar.

I want drop in speaker that can handle 75-100watts RMS, but my big worry is that the mid/midbass may be too deep for the stock location. I don't really want to modify the door by adding spacers and the like.

I guess I'm really limiting my choices eh

As for subs, I'm looking for something efficient(only inputing around 200watts) and relatively accurate.

I like to use a small sealed box, somewhere around 1Cuft would be great. I guess I could make my own, but it's a fair bit of work and I don't want to!!!

My biggest problem with a "prefab" box is that they tend to staple instead of screw and I refuse to use a box like that.

Now the biggy

AMPLIFIERS(echo echo echo echo)

I'd really like about 75wpc to the front, and around 200wpc going to the sub. I DON't need anything with a crossover, nothing with a remote bass/gain adjust knob. all I want is a straight amlplier.

The problem I run into is that I'd like it to fit UNDER my Civics passenger seat, the space is 14 by 10 by 3" MAX. Take away a 1/2" for an MDF bass, and you're left with 2 1/2" height.

Now the budget

This is all in Canadian money(loonies and toonies included)

NOT including the optional DVD thing, or for parts +tax.

Front component set ..... $275
Amplifier ..... $300
sub and enclosure ..... $300

Help me out?? Thanks
Brent

I'm thinking of a single Shiva, used SV sub, or something I can buy in Canada. I don't really like the variables of shipping from the States, but may if the savings are great enough.

 

[brentl]

Should it be REPLY ...ECHO.....ECHO...echo?

 

[Sean^M]

Ok first suggestion, lose everything Sony. *grin*
Audiocontrol is the way to go for crossovers.. that or Zapco.
Alpine or Eclipse for the head unit.
that's for the future of course.. on to current questions.
always do a custom box.. even if its simple. prefabbed ones quite frankly almost always suck or cost too much.

Front component set ..... $275
CDT classic series.

Amplifier ..... $300
Kicker. they make really nice amps, and they are reasonable in price.

sub and enclosure ..... $300
Onyx Mobile Audio, perhaps Shiva, DD or MMATS are other good options.

 

[brentl]

"Audiocontrol is the way to go for crossovers.." I agree, but the Sony I use is still VERY good and I don't need to spend money on a small upgrade.

I've heard lots of thing about CDT, Esp the discounts you can get on them. Mostly I see them in the States though and the cross border thing bothers me.

I think the Shiva is the best compromise in the Adire line. I'd look at the Tempest, but think it may be overkill.

What's this about Mmatts, DD, and Onyx ?? Never heard of them.

Brent
Remember that I'd like to keep the size to a minimum, now up to 2 CUft MAX.

 

[Sean^M]

for a 12" sub, sealed, the box is usually about 1.6
2cu ft us for ported.

MMATS
http://www.mmatsproaudio.com/
DD (digital designs)
http://www.digitaldesignsaudio.com/
Onyx (one of my favorites)
http://www.onyxmobileaudio.com/
RE (Resonant Engineering)
http://www.respl.com/
ID (Image Dynamics)
http://www.imagedynamicsusa.com//

These are all higher end subwoofer manufacturers.
some of RE's subs are actually rebadged Onyx subs if I recall. Any of these companies will be magnitudes beyond MTX and Kicker.
elemental deisgns (eD) is another option, though I'm not a huge fan of theirs because their sales reps are totally clueless. They try to claim things like efficiency of a sub is meaningless, which is why the refuse to publish the spec, yet they can't give any valid argument for why it's meaningless.. "it just.. is."
I forgot you're in Canada. I don't know what's available up there at the moment, so take a gander through those links and see what fits your budget and fancy.
I'm looking at two of the Onyx LSM12v.2 subs myself with a Zapco C2K amplifier.

 

[brentl]

Thanks Sean

I heard of Image dynamics of course because of their IDQ stuff and the horn loaded compression drivers that were all the rage back in the early 90's.

whatever happened to that craze anyways?? It seemed to be a really easy way to have near perfect imaging, throw a couple midbasses into the door, add a sub and you could have a world class system. Damn you didn't even NEED a lot of amp power.

I was on the ED website for a while looking around, but finding a dealer that carries this stuff could be a problem.

"Any of these companies will be magnitudes beyond MTX and Kicker."

Sure, you pretty much figure that out when you come here and see Adire audio(EX Avatar audio) and SV subs prove the little guys build stuff that rivals the big stuff.

I'll take a look at Onyx, but I'm thinking I'll be looking at the lower end stuff .

Brent
P.s. "for a 12" sub, sealed, the box is usually about 1.6" The smaller the better. I like sealed better, it's a lot harder to overdrive tha sub.

 

[Sean^M]

not sure what ever happened to the horn loaded compression drivers really.. I loved those horns Richard Clark designed. Hell, I wanted a pair of those.
Biggest drawbacks were the massive size, and the cost.
I'm still a big fan of Rick's old Grand national from my IASCA days heh

I've seen some subs spec'ed at 1cu foot for a sealed 12" sub box. That may do ya quite well. small tight boxes are good, depending on the vehicle, but they also tend to lack a lot of SPL, and in today's era of trunks that are sealed up tighter than a drum, you need to either vent the trunk into the cabin, or power through the rear seats. Those small boxes just don't handle that too well sometimes. People complain that the subs don't hit that hard (laugh)
Onyx's top model LSM12v.2 sub is like $470, but they have two models under it that are more reasonable in price, and lower power handling, so one of those may be right up your ally. Onyx is one of those small, privately owned enthusiast-started companies, much like Orion, RF, and PPI were back about ten or fifteen years ago.

Anyway check their specs and see if any of them fit the bill there.. all of the above are good companies.

 

[brentl]

"People complain that the subs don't hit that hard (laugh)"

Hey, my lodest system only hit 128db's and I was MORE than happy with that!

Brent